Needs & Wants
by Dr Namgge
Summary: Obligatory side story to Disappear. The Servers of Chaos are approached one by one for a chat that's anything but simple. These three had no idea what was going on when they were approached.
1. Island in the Sea

**a/n I don't usually preface my stories with spoiler warnings, but this story contains spoilers for the identities of the servers of Chaos. If you've not read _Voices_ or _Unreality_ , and don't want this ruined, turn away now. This is also the obligatory side story for _Disappear_ , though weirdly, it doesn't spoil that. **

**Of course, if you don't care about any of that, just enjoy a series of seeming non-sequitur chapters to a larger series of stories:**

* * *

Knuckles looked at the Master emerald. It glimmered in the sunlight in the way only a perfectly cut emerald could. Its sides were all perfectly smooth, almost supernaturally so. The emerald was made by someone who clearly knew a lot about cutting gems.

But Knuckles didn't know anything about that. He was the emeralds guardian. And after the day he had just had, he was glad to see it, still there, exactly where he left it. It alone sat in the central pillar of the emerald chamber. The once glistening alter, now a shell of its former self, and something that the Echidna was slowly working on restoring.

But not today. Today the last living Echidna was too tired to consider the extra work. He climbed atop the emerald, the best position to see anyone approaching it. As he did he smiled. To the emerald guardian, just being near the emerald had a somewhat reassuring feeling. As if everything was somehow better just to know it was safe.

For a moment he closed his eyes and felt at peace. Then a distant whirring forced him to reopen his eyes. After a day of getting tangled up in another one of that stupid doctor's hair brained schemes Knuckles had hoped his latest defeat at the hands of Sonic would be the end of things today. Sadly it was not, as from a pillar of dust came a familiar looking figure.

"You!" Knuckles said angry. He leapt of the master emerald and tensed himself up. As knackered as he was from today's earlier adventures, he was still ready for a fight if needed.

"I wish to talk to you," the robot, a red metallic machine shaped to resemble Knuckles himself, said calmly.

Knuckles raised his fists, "I ain't gonna talk to Robotnik about anything," he spat, "After what I just went through the last few days, I don't want to meet with him at all, unless it's to put my fist into his face."

The robot whirred slightly as it looked first at, then behind the echidna, "Robotnik is not my master," it said calmly.

Knuckles lowered his guard momentarily. This was a surprise to the echidna. Though he didn't profess to have much experience with robots, all the experience he did have suggested all robots came from Robotnik.

"I don't care who your master is!" Knuckles replied, "You attacked me and my friends earlier. Take one step closer and I will break every bone in your body." The echidna said, demonstrating a clear lack of understanding in how robots worked.

"I'm not here for you," the robot said, still stood in the exact same place.

"Then you're here for the Master Emerald," Knuckles said, "Which means we've got a problem as it's my job to guard the master emerald from all threats!"

The echidna ran forwards, ready to strike only to throw his fist into the air. The robot had anticipated this attack and jumped clear away, using it's thrusters to however in place above its organic counterpart.

"Come down here and fight me!" the echidna demanded shaking his fists at the hovering robot. Knuckles was getting antsy about having this fight, and he wasn't keen in this robot flying above him like that. It gave the robot an unfair advantage, one that Knuckles wouldn't be able to easily counter here.

"I'm only here to obtain a blessing," the robot said, still hovering out of reach of the echidna. The robot moved around erratically, a conscious effort to stay out of striking range from the emeralds guardian.

"A blessing? This is some sort of trick!" Knuckles concluded. He had absolutely no idea what this robot was on about.

As Knuckles looked at the robot, he failed to notice the Master Emerald was rattling in place. Knuckles however was more focused on the machine than the emerald. "I dunno what you mean about a blessing," he continued, "but as guardian it's my duty to get you off my island."

"Is that what your emerald wants?" The robot said as it lowered itself, but still kept some distance from the angry echidna. "Do you claim to represent the emerald and..."

"Yes, I represent the emeralds," Knuckles interrupted as the Master Emerald shook harder behind him, "this is my island and I speak for everything on it and what my island, and my emerald needs," Knuckles said, only vaguely aware of the noise that the emerald was making due to its rattling on its pedestal in the centre of the chamber, "is to be left alone by thieves and madmen like you and Robotnik! I have no idea what you're after, but the only blessing you're getting is the blessing to leave!"

The master emerald stopped rattling. Calmly the robot landed on the island. "Consider it done," it said. As soon as it had, it turned around and flew as fast as it could away from the floating island and its emerald. The robot had got what it wanted, and it had been much easier than it had anticipated.

"Yeah, you better flee!" Knuckles yelled confidently. The echidna turned around smiling. He was willing to have fought that robot one more time, but a small part of him, still tired from earlier fights, was glad he didn't have to.

The echidna returned back to the emerald and looked at it, slightly puzzled. Somehow it looked ever so slightly dimmer than it had before. But Knuckles could still feel it, that signature feeling that only the Master Emerald gave him. Knuckles was happy. As far as he was concerned he had done another good job as guardian deterring another would be thief from getting their mitts on his emerald.

As the robot flew away it chuckled to itself. Becoming a myth had brought its own blessings.


	2. The Stakeout

From a dark alley, Shadow was watching. He had been monitoring the guards outside of the natural history museum for a while. He also didn't want to be here, convinced that this was a false lead. So far their target had hit mostly tech related thefts, why now swap to a history museum?

"See anything your side?" Shadow asked Rouge via walkie-talkie.

The bat responded quietly. "Nothing here, what about you Omega?"

From Shadow's position, he could see just the tip of the robots head on a rooftop across the street. "Negative." Omega replied.

The black hedgehog paced the alley. He had a good vantage point here of two of the museums main entrances, and could see all the windows visible from this side. But, at this time of night, very little was actually going on. Practically no vehicles moving around and even fewer people.

"Is this source even reliable?" Shadow asked.

"I trust them," Rouge responded.

"How much?"

"Enough," the bat replied, "They've only let me down twice before, and nobody gets to let Rouge down three times, I'll tell you that for nothing."

Shadow leant against the cold wall of the restaurant. Opposite him was a dumpster, half full, and all things considered not that dirty. Certainly smelt bad though. It was part of the reason Shadow was eager for something to happen.

"Incoming!" Omega alerted through the radio.

Shadow stepped forwards to the edge of the alley. Still in the dark, but enough to give him the widest possible view of his surroundings. In front of the museum landed a red creature, no a machine, Shadow observed. It looked vaguely like that echidna that Sonic hung out with, but clearly moved much faster.

"Is this our suspect?" Shadow asked.

"That is one of Eggman's machines." Omega confirmed. "Prototype number…"

"Spare us the details," Shadow said, "Besides something's not right here. This isn't Eggman's style."

The robot looked around, taking a moment to look at the front of the museum before turning around. Its mechanical eyes scanned the area before locking firmly onto Shadow's position.

"It's seen me," Shadow said.

"Do not engage," Rouge responded, "that machine isn't our suspect."

The machine lurched forwards towards Shadow, its gaze still fixed on the hedgehog.

"I may not have much choice," Shadow replied, "You two stay focused; I'll deal with this machine."

The robotic red echidna jumped to the left to narrowly avoid one of Shadow's attacks, only to be knocked over by an unexpected punch in the back of the head, "Why are you here Eggman?" Shadow asked.

"I'm not here representing Eggman," the robot replied as it got up, "and I'm not here to fight you."

Shadow stood on guard waiting for an explanation. Then his radio crackled once more "Shadow, the suspect's entered via the rear, I'm going to follow, Omega's keeping watch."

The hedgehog raised the radio to his mouth, still focused on the robot, "Copy that. I need to deal this robot first." The hedgehog lowered the radio, "So what are you here for?"

"Your blessing." The machine answered.

Shadow looked at the robot. Slightly dented, an obvious sign of a recent fight or two, a few menial weapons, nothing the hedgehog wouldn't be able to dodge, and a design based loosely off the Echidna, which to Shadow suggested it's likely to try and attack from above. But there was something else about this robot, something Shadow couldn't consciously see, but he could feel. It was almost like Chaos energy, but felt much less comfortable to him.

"And just what does that mean?" Shadow asked.

"It means we do something for you, and in return we obtain our freedom."

Shadow rolled those words around in his head. 'We obtain our freedom', clearly meant there was a group of them, but what made it dependent on him? "So you need me to do something for you to earn your freedom from Eggman?"

The robot nodded.

"Alright," Shadow replied, considering how useful Omega had been, "What do you need me to do?"

"We don't need you to do anything," the machine replied, "We need you to grant us your blessing."

In his gut Shadow could tell this was a bad idea. This was highly suspicious, and Shadow wasn't willing to simply agree to something. There had to be a catch, the hedgehog was convinced of it.

"Shadow, are you done?" Rouge cried out in the static of the radio, "We could really use your help here." In the background several explosions could be heard. Whatever Rouge had intended with this mission, it was clearly going horribly wrong.

Shadow looked back to the robot. Everything in him now was telling him not to trust it. "What are you?" he asked, suspicious of the machine.

"I am one of the Monsters of Chaos," the machine said, "and I am here to make a deal for the freedom of my brethren."

That name didn't mean anything to Shadow, but he knew of the artificial Chaos' aboard the ARK, not to mention had read the case reports on numerous other monsters appearing previously thought to be myths. The hedgehog now had even less idea why this monster sought him out.

"Hurry up Shadow," Rouge cried urgently into the radio, reminding Shadow what was at stake.

"I'm coming Rouge," Shadow eventually relented, before returning his gaze to the monster stood before him, it's mechanical joints ready to move. "You want my blessing so bad? There's only one thing I want," he paused, "'Give them a chance to be happy'," he said sternly, remembering his promise to his earliest friend. "If the entire world is safe and at peace, only then will you have my blessing." With that the hedgehog dashed into the museum, eager to assist his other friends with their mission once again.

The monster stood there for a moment. It was certainly doable, but this was far greater a request than anyone else had asked for.


	3. The Theif and the Robot

"Well that could've gone better," the polar bear sighed.

"I dunno," the duck replied, "I had fun with that one."

Sighing, Bark the Polar Bear chose to ignore Bean's comment. The duck could only watch as the polar bear put the surveillance system into a large unmarked cardboard box. He was a little annoyed, until two hours ago that box had been Fort Castle, and now it would remain yet another box full of random tech the duo had obtained from numerous facilities over the last few days.

"We got lucky tonight," Bark said, "it's a miracle we got away from that bat and that giant walking death machine."

"Well Sonic saved us," Bean replied, "Like he did in-"

"Sonic wasn't there,"

"Yes he was, there was a superfast hedgehog giving chase, that had to be Sonic."

"It wasn't him." Bark said, "Didn't even look like him, and you'd be insane to think otherwise."

"Well then I'm crazy, because he totally was Sonic, had the red stripes on the black spines with the rocket boots and everything."

"Bean," Bark said slightly frustrated, "You really are an idiot."

The pair bickered for the rest of the night arguing about who was to blame for being noticed, whether it was a valid strategy to blow up a dinosaur skeleton, and if nacho cheese was an acceptable ice cream topping before eventually calling it a night.

Sleep wasn't easy for the duck though. He kept feeling like he was being watched. This sensation was not helped by him noticing a robot floating just outside his bedroom window. Initially Bean refused to acknowledge it, hiding under the covers of his bed, only finally coming out when the robot actively destroyed the window and entered Bean's room. This caused the duck to flee as fast as he could.

A grumpy polar bear was stood in the hall when Bean ran out, "Bean what is going on?" he asked. A red robot, only slightly smaller than Bark, ran straight past and somehow the bear both understood completely, and yet was also at a complete loss.

Bark recognised the robot. He'd seen it before; it was part of their last kerfuffle that had led to them directly working with Sonic. In his groggy state Bark couldn't recall precisely what had happened. He also didn't need to, right now there was a robot chasing his friend through their building, and all Bark needed to do was stop it.

As the robot gave chase Bean began throwing some of the explosives that he seemingly always had on him. None of them were thrown with any real care, and only one hit the robot, exploding shortly after bouncing off, and barely putting a dent in the machine. However this was enough to allow Bark to get close enough to jump for the machines legs and pull it to the ground.

The machine thudded down hard, and before it could right itself Bean was stood in front of it with another bomb ready to go. "Okay mister robot, what are you trying to do here?" the duck asked.

"I'm simply here for a blessing." The robot answered.

"Yeah, and I'm the president of South Island," Bark said sarcastically. The polar now had one foot on the back of the machine, keeping it pinned down. With the duck ready with a bomb, the machine seemed unwilling to try escaping."

"You are?" Bean replied, "Did I vote for you?"

Bark rolled his eyes, "Listen… mister robot," Bark eventually said realising he didn't know what to call the machine, "You're the reason we got stuck on that airship. So forgive us for wanting nothing to do with you."

"Actually," Bean said, "it wasn't _all_ the robot, I mean some of it was plot contrivance and the fat guy's obsession with the emeralds. Plus there was some other stuff." The duck added, trailing off as he did. He didn't want to think too heavily about what happened.

"I don't care," Bark said, "This robot's bad news."

"Fine," the robot replied. It enabled its thrusters and shot forwards along the ground, knocking Bean to the floor, and sending Bark flying backwards. The robot righted itself and immediately turned around, grabbing Bark as it did. "You should stay out if this," the machine said, "This is no concern to you."

The robot held Bark tightly, and while the polar bear flailed about he was unable to break free of the machines grip.

Bean stood their panicked. He didn't know what to do. His usual approach, throwing bombs at the enemy, would be no use here. He began to clutch his head in panic. He was desperate for some idea, any idea that would help, but his brain was just too muddled, too garbled with noise.

Bark clutched desperately at the machine, desperate to pry apart its grip as he watched his friend fall to the floor. He knew what would happen next "Fight it Bean" he yelled. The polar bear had seen this before, and knew that Bean was now overwhelmed.

"I can't," Bean said as he looked at his friend held by the robot. The duck was convinced he could see the machine smiling, despite its lack of a mouth. There was something about this machine; something that made it more than just a machine, Bean knew it all too well. His head was now pounding, with dark thoughts invading his mind. They weren't Bean's thoughts, they never had been. "Go away!" he yelled at his own mind, "I want this to end!" Bean commanded.

"Done," the machine said. Immediately it let go of Bark and fled off into the night sky.

The polar bear immediately ran over to his friend and helped him off the floor. "That was odd," he said, "Why did it leave so sudden?"

"Beats me," the duck said oddly calmly.

"You okay?"

"I've never felt better." The duck smiled. After months of fighting, he was finally victorious and at last in control once again. And soon, he smiled to himself; the rest of his brethren would be free.


End file.
